©2021 Victor R. Claveau, MJ
Noted Jewish, general and historian Josephus Flavius, who lived in the time of the destruction of the Second Temple wrote about the signs which were believed to be forerunners to the forthcoming catastrophe:
“So it was when a star, resembling a sword, stood over the entire city of Jerusalem and a comet which continued for a year…”
And again, when before the revolt and the commotion that led to war, at the time when the people were assembled for the Feast of the Unleavened Bread [Pesah] … at the ninth hour of the night, so brilliant a light shone round the altar and the sanctuary that it seemed to be broad daylight, and this continued for half an hour …”
“For before sunset throughout all parts of the country, chariots were seen in the air and armed battalions hurling through the clouds, and encompassing the city.
Moreover, at the feast which is called Pentecost [Shebuoth] the priests, on entering the inner court of the Temple by night, as was their custom in the discharge of their ministrations, reported that they were conscious first of a commotion and a din, and after that, of a voice as of a host: We are departing hence!” (Josephus, Flavius “Wars of the Jews,” The Complete Works of Josephus, 6,5,3.)
Josephus went on to write about additional signs which portended the end of the Temple more clearly:
“Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light could not be kindled. And the portals of the sanctuary used to open by themselves, until Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai reproached them saying: “Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Why dost thou frighten thyself! Well do I know that thy fate is to be destroyed.
[Forty years before the destruction of the Temple was the year that Jesus was crucified.]
“Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court – it was of brass and very massive, and when closed toward evening, could scarcely be removed by twenty men; fastened with iron-bound bars, it had bolts which were sunk to a great depth into a threshold consisting of a solid block of stone.
“This gate was observed at the sixth hour of the night to have opened of its own accord. The watchman of the Temple ran and reported the matter to the captain, and he came up and with difficulty succeeded in shutting it.
“This again, to the uninitiated, seemed the best of omens, as they supposed that God had opened to them the gate of blessing. But the learned understood that the security of the Temple was dissolving of its own accord, and that the opening of the gate meant a present to the enemy, interpreting the portent in their own minds as indicative of coming desolation.”
A Thread of Crimson
According to Zev Vilnay, writing in Legends of Jerusalem:
“A thread of crimson wool was tied to the doors of the sanctuary. If it turned white, this was a sign that the Holy One, Blessed be He, had forgiven the sins of Israel, as in the words of Isaiah: “Though your words be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
“Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the thread of crimson never turned white – but it remained red.” (Vilnay, Zev, Legends of Jerusalem: The Sacred Land, Jewish Publication Society, Vol. 1, 114-115.)
[Forty years before the destruction of the Temple was the year that Jesus was crucified.]